Rain continues to fall outside, but that isn’t really a big issue for the four of them, as they’re heading into the dungeon.

After Fresh’s demonstration of her cursed dagger the other day, they had gotten down to a significant depth in the dungeon, as she can essentially just cast one spell to kill the majority of monsters on a floor and those who are left alive, if any, are in such a state of disarray from the stacked effects of her curses and the applied bleeding that they’re quickly picked off by the others with no real difficulty.

The sub-boss on floor fifty, the stone-giant, who had caused them so many problems and essentially a full day’s worth of fighting alone, was dealt with in a matter of five minutes. In terms of levels, they’re shooting upwards at rapid pace.

- Well, those of them who can level are.

Shamrock, as a monster, is unable to level any higher than he already is. That being said, he still has the ability to raise not only his technical skills through practice, but as a slime, through eating and growing, which he has been doing for so long that the process has begun to slow down, as slimes seem to have a ‘natural’ soft-cap, to stop one single slime from becoming too massive.

Jubilee meanwhile, as a demon, also has no menu and doesn’t get experience points. But at the same time, they don’t need it either as their glass-magic simply bypasses the cosmic-system entirely. After all, there’s no need for health-points if the enemy just bleeds out right away.

Basil however, as a normal human, in the same way that Fresh is a ‘normal’ human, gets experience points and levels up essentially as quickly as Fresh does from the experience. So much so, that they actually have to take a break, because the sudden increases in values and stats makes the two of them literally dizzy and nauseous.

After they get to floor seventy-five, powering through monstrous onslaughts, the four of them decide to go back out. But not to go home, rather, they just leave Fresh’s cut-off space and then head inside to Basil’s, which is still untouched and so, they begin to run through the entire dungeon again from floor one. At least until floor thirty, at which point they’re so worn through and ragged, even with their luxury of Fresh’s magic, that they simply have to call it quits.

As for Fresh, even with her ‘infinite’ amount of soul-points, she can barely walk anymore by the time they’re leaving. So Shamrock has to hoist her over his shoulder and carry her back home in a way that she finds almost nostalgic.

The four of them head back to their house, their bags full of boss-cores and rare drops and with both Fresh and Basil both being close to a full ten levels higher, each at around level thirty now.

[Level up! You are now LEVEL 32!]

{Cooking 8}{Crafting 9}{Gathering 5}{Adventuring 6}{Witch-Crafting 9}{Mercantile 8}

~*+- PROFILE -+*~ HP: 32/32 +1 "FRESH" SOUL: $%§ / §**+'# LEVEL: 32! "Fresh"

STATUS: ???

CLASS: [WITCH]

- of the Black-Fountain

OBOLS: 11844

SUB-CLASS: [CRAFTSMAN]

RACE: HUMAN

[INVENTORY]

STR: 13 +1 WIS: 09 LUK: 08 DEX: 13 +1 INT: 11 LOV: 09

As for abilities, given that one is able to receive a new ability with every level, provided one has unlocked the choices, Fresh found herself tapping against many different things, eventually just taking some choices because she had nothing better to take.

They take a nap for a few hours and then open the store for the afternoon. Not because they need the money, but because Basil wants to sell medicine to some people, to make herself feel better and that rest of them don’t have a problem with that.

Fresh is down in the basement, working on the giant heating element for the orichalcum forge. It’s a nightmare. Everything she had used as a principle in order to construct the smaller beads just doesn’t work on this scale. The heat doesn’t move through the metal right, the crystal-dust inside of it doesn’t have the strength to move this much magic on its own. There are just things wrong on every end and so, she puzzles, trying to figure out a way to juice it up.

Orichalcum is an interesting metal. Being resistant to all types of magic, it’s pretty unique, but also deadly. Given that everyone has magic in themselves to some extent, swallowing orichalcum or getting some orichalcum dust stuck in your body could be really bad. Thankfully, it’s so durable and hard to find that such a thing as ‘orichalcum dust’ seems to be a rarity in and of itself.

Fresh taps her fingers against the counter, wondering.

She grabs an iron-ingot from their pile and heads over to the cauldron of transformation, dropping it inside.

The cauldron rumbles and a second later, it spits out a perfectly beautiful orichalcum ingot that she catches pretty easily, despite its weight.

[Orichalcum bar](Normal) An ingot of pure, radiant orichalcum metal. Weight: 5kg Value: ???

Sure that she’d get in trouble if anyone sees her, she sets it down onto the workbench and then lifts a finger.

(Fresh) uses: [Curse Item]

A glow leaves her hand, surrounding the bar of metal for a moment like a poison cloud, before it then simply rises away and vanishes, dissipating into the air, rather than soaking into the metal.

[Spell negated: {Orichalcum}]

“Huh…” she mutters to herself. So it is confirmed now for sure. Orichalcum, being resistant to all magic, is also resistant to curses. “Interesting…” mutters Fresh.

The next day comes. They’re back in the dungeon, pushing through Basil’s dungeon until they get to floor seventy-five again. After that, they head back out and start Jubilee’s dungeon, restarting from floor one all over again.

It’s easier to do this, as after floor seventy-five, the enemies become a real challenge, even with their growing strength and Fresh’s cursed item.

By the time they’re done for the morning, they get a few more levels and then head back home, just as exhausted as the day before.

[Level up! You are now LEVEL 36!]

{Cooking 8}{Crafting 9}{Gathering 5}{Adventuring 6}{Witch-Crafting 9}{Mercantile 8}

~*+- PROFILE -+*~ HP: 36/36 +1 "FRESH" SOUL: $%§ / §**+'# LEVEL: 36! "Fresh"

STATUS: ???

CLASS: [WITCH]

- of the Black-Fountain

OBOLS: 12183

SUB-CLASS: [CRAFTSMAN]

RACE: HUMAN

[INVENTORY]

STR: 15 WIS: 10 +1 LUK: 10 DEX: 15 INT: 12 +1 LOV: 10

Fresh flops down onto their bed, laying there as she feels the tension in her back come loose, as her body begins to relax. They’re going to open the store again in a few hours like yesterday. But first, she just wants to lay here and to just… to just lay here, actually.

- Being strong, becoming strong, they’re both very exhausting processes.

She closes her eyes, listening to the sounds of rattling pots and pans out in the kitchen and to the sound of boots walking above her head on the indoor-balcony.

Just a little more. Just a little stronger. They all just need to become a little stronger. With every level-up, with every sale, with every minute spent practicing fighting and living together, they come a step closer towards their survival.

Just a little more.

Fresh yawns and falls asleep, exhausted and spent.